A crash echoed.
The elf's eyes flickered in the smoke from the paw's strike. No sight of Ciel, the 'Queen' who icked her in all the wrong ways.
Gaseous fog then converged several feet before Quia, the dust settling to reveal Ciel, who emerged from her
"What do you want from me, Quia?" Ciel's voice was flat. "Why did you attack me?"
Ciel concluded the mimics bowed earlier for two simple reasons.
First, to confirm Ciel the Queen's betrayal with their own eyes. A last chance for Ciel to fulfill her Queen's duty, per se.
Gust flew and swept away any lingering smoke, as the former partners met each other's stares. One steady, one quivering.
"I want answers."
Second, to cause a fracture in Ciel and Quia's partnership.
Ciel, at this moment, chose silence.
"Didn't you tell me I was bad with words…?"
Her mumble was faint and stuttering.
The Former Queen then turned heels. With hurried steps, she left the clearings and escaped into the shades of the forest.
Leaves rustled as Quia gave chase, her wind-enchanted feet splitting leaves in the skillful sprint.
Ciel's enhanced senses blared. On her right was the North where the Stormveil lied.
More rainbow spires arose in that location, each one closer to her than the last.
And the front? The green firefly flashed on her cheek to flash a warning red, and Ciel didn't hesitate to pivot left.
The landscape, as she mapped out, was surrounded by many trees and branches, with roads cluttered by bumbling pebbles.
As the wind roared behind her, Ciel didn't need to look behind and duck.
A paw flew above her, splintering a tree. Wooden crusts exploded as Ciel's hand reached out and grabbed.
With a spin, she dodged the crumbled pieces of bark and splashed the brown crusts in an arc.
"Ack! You little-"
Quia's eyes caught the ashes as she coiled. The wind, shrouding her body, failed to reach her eyes, a small weakness Ciel observed in the last battle.
The magic circle busied itself to retrieve the paw. Now was the time.
With both hands gripping onto the staff, Ciel knocked one of Quia's knees into folding. Quia winced, and Ciel aimed at the elf's head.
A blue ray fired. Quia's waist arched as the moonlight grazed her cheek, cutting a thin red line.
The awkward movement caused Quia to stumble and fall, but once her vision cleared, she found no staff pointing at her head.
It wouldn't make a difference, as her palm was already on the ground and prepared for a counterattack.
"Ciel!"
But the thought that the 'Queen' spared her only angered the elf.
The white-haired figure, now running again, clenched onto her chest with a drumming heartbeat.
Ciel's vision began to haze. Her throat clogged with a shallow lump, forcing both her nostrils and lips to scramble for breath.
Her weak legs wobbled to sprint around patches of rocks. The next shot must count.
The tired, yet sharp black pupils in Ciel twitched. Then-
Slam! The paw crashed again, yet the strike found no one once again.
Quia, retrieving the paw, twirled with a narrowing gaze, trying to observe any move in the air.
'I missed her.'
With no fog from before, Quia clenched a quiet fist at her waist.
Towering trees surrounded her. Shades enveloped every corner of the forest, sparing only a few glimpses from the moonlight. The floor was nothing but patches of grass and pebbles.
Ciel won't run, the elf knew. Not when the Shadebeasts and Stormveil were still close by.
And Quia knew the strange, fog-like movement couldn't last long. Perhaps of mana, or perhaps of distance.
Maybe that's why Ciel didn't run away back then. Maybe their short-term bond was but a coincidence.
The thought ground Quia's nerve.
Yet as her teeth seethed, her instinct warned.
Above! She leapt back as a moonblast shot before her feet.
Quia's brain surged in an instant: up at her right, where Ciel fired at her while standing on a branch. The girl must have used her fog trick to get up there!
Yet as she landed while snapping in that direction, only a thick branch alone greeted her.
The elf's body shook. Her instinct flared again as she lifted her arm, a blue ray passing through beneath, the line of fire from the ground this time.
Another fog trickery. Frustration boiled as the elf almost summoned her paw to crash into every tree, before she caught it at the edge of her vision.
Ciel, at Quia's right, revealed herself behind a tree before rushing forth to close the distance.
She fired again. Not at Quia, but down where the pebbles were, looming before Quia's feet.
The moonblast met the rock and exploded, splattering their masses towards Quia in a wave of grey.
But with her shrouded wind, Quia quickly shielded her head with both arms in a cross, before charging forth and breaking the rock formation apart.
The elf knew if she summoned instead, Ciel would use the gap and fire another shot.
She could, after all, use one summon at a time, hence the need to retrieve and resummon again.
'But now the advantage is at my side.'
Her charge continued. A blue eye peeked through the crossed arms, watching Ciel keenly as her opponent also sprinted.
If the fog movement happened again, her wind-shrouded speed would catch up.
If the blue ray fired again, her body would dodge without losing her momentum.
'It's my win.'
Her left hand stretched as the right hand gripped into a tight fist at her waist, their figures closing in on each other dangerously.
And as Ciel's head drew in just right, Quia's right fist lashed out.
Yet it met no flesh, impact or even a strand of hair, as the blow passed straight through the ear, and went out the other side of the brain.
A gasp escaped Quia. A mirage! Yet as she turned around-
The staff's tip, soft yet precise, tapped at her forehead, a hint of mana pulsing at the bulging wood.
A tickle bloomed at Quia's cheek as a leaf brushed it. That, or it was some semblance of worry from Ciel's hushed, hoarse breaths.
It was a chain of tricks from before.
Ciel, first, disoriented Quia by switching positions with two
And as she revealed herself and blasted into a wall of rocks, it briefly obscured Quia's vision, allowing her to conjure a mirage.
She then faded into the mist. Quia's sight was focused on mirage, allowing her to flank behind, manifest back into physical form, and strike easily.
"This," Ciel stated, or tried to with what little air she could gather, "makes the second time I've spared you."
Quia seethed her teeth, yet her brows fell with a hint of weight.
"Kill me then." Her head pushed itself at the staff, glaring into Ciel's slumped eyes. "Don't half-ass it."
Ciel raised a brow. "Okay."
She fired her last shot.